GREAT NEW RESOURCES
Google Docs Templates
Google has lots of new templates for students and teachers. You need to have a Google Apps account.
- Go to Google main screen
-Go to Docs
- Sign up for a new account if you don’t have one.
- Once you are on “docs”, go to “new” in upper left corner. Click on “From template”
- You can browse all templates, search, or click on category link. There is everything from party invitations to research papers and bibliography examples. Check out the presentation templates. You can even “embed” them as widgets into your website or wiki’s.
Widgets
A widget is a “building block” that you can embed in your wiki’s, websites, or personal spaces. It adds content from one Web site to another. There are many places that you can get widgets, but 3 new places are National Geographic, PBS and Polldaddy.
- http://widgets.nationalgeographic.com/widgets/
o Photo of the day, puzzle of the day, top news stories, etc.
- http://www.pbs.org/teachers/activitypacks/index.html
o You can “grab” and embed PBS resources and activities by curricular themes.
- http://polldaddy.com/
o Add live polls and surveys to your website to get community/parent/student feedback.
Digital Storytelling
- Check out these great free sites for digital storytelling:
o http://myths.e2bn.org/create/ (Myth and Legend Creator)
o http://www.adgame-wonderland.de/type/bayeux.php (Historic Tale Construction kit)
o http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/filmmaker.html (National Geographic Wildlife Filmmaker)
Other Great Resources
- Lookybook is a site with hundreds of picture books for use in lessons. Great for teaching concepts in all subject areas. You can embed them in your website or just display them on your whiteboard using your LCD: http://www.lookybook.com/
- Utube has a children’s version that is already filtered. You can find the videos at http://www.totlol.com/
- Make your own browser based widget for your class. Add resources, videos, news, blogs, etc: http://www.pageflakes.com/ Use themes and curriculum to meet your class needs.
- http://teacherlibrarian.ning.com/ Once we get up and running doing student videos and voice threads, we can embed them in our websites and student pages! This site assigns embeddable code when you create it as a ning.
- Zamzar is a free converter utility that will change one type of file to another type, i.e. pdf to word. http://www.zamzar.com/
- Check this out! It is a lot of fun and extremely easy to use. Use it when your students are presenting projects, or when you give them a certain amount of time to complete an assignment. http://www.online-stopwatch.com/
- http://lovelycharts.com Good site for creating and making charts and graphs.
- http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/ An even better site for creating and making charts and graphs.
- This is awesome!! Use this to emphasize words, introduce a unit, or let kids create their own word walls! This is SO much fun! http://www.wordle.net/
- http://www.cueprompter.com/ With this site, you don’t need to buy an expensive teleprompter. It’s great for broadcasts, student presentations, etc.
- Joyce Valenza is a super human librarian in Pennsylvania. She is extremely forward thinking in using technology and web 2.0 with students. The following link is where she posts much of her stuff.
Http://newtoolsworkshop.wikispaces.com/Mind+Mapping+Tools
EVEN MORE AWESOME RESOURCES
Animoto: documentary-like videos http://animoto.com
for education purposes http://animoto.com/education
Audacity: free software for recording/editing sound http://audacity.sourceforge.net
21classes: creates a customized, multi-user classroom blog portal http://www.21classes.com
Big Huge Lab: posters, trading cards, puzzles, mosaics, magazine covers and more http://bighugelabs.com
Blabberize: Give any image a mouth to catch interest http://blabberize.com/
Bubbleshare: upload photos, audio, and video with captions to share http://www.bubbleshare.com
BUBBL.US: allows students to brainstorm online, creaking mind maps http://bubbl.us
CELTX: media pre-production and collaboration http://celtx.com
Class Blogmeister: blogging software http://classblogmeister.com
Coat of Arms: make your own at http://www.makeyourcoatofarms.com/
Conceptshare: on-line design collaboration http://www.conceptshare.com
Creative Commons: share and build on creative works; free pictures http://creativecommons.org
Delicious: social bookmarking Web site (tag primary source collections) http://delicious
Dipity: Create your own interactive timeline http://www.dipity.com/
Flickr: free photograph management system (manage PS photos) http://www.flickr.com
Gliffy: create, share, and collaborate with graphic organizers http://www.gliffy.com
Glogster: create your own interactive web poster http://edu.glogster.com/
Goanimate: Create your own cartoons and animations http://goanimate.com/
Google Tools: mix of Web 2.0 and traditional Web concepts
- Googledocs: upload documents, presentations, etc. and edit http://docs.google.com
- Google Advanced Search: find copyright-free images to use, share, modify http://www.google.com/advanced_search
- Google Notebook: organize notes, images, links, and share with others http://www.google.com/notebook
- Google Reader: aggregates Web content in single location for easy viewing (RSS feeds) http://www.google.com/reader
Mini-Mizer: create yourself as a Lego Person to use in other programs
http://www.reasonablyclever.com/mm2/mini2.swf
Myfamily.com: connect with family online and do genealogy research http://myfamily.com
Open Office: open source applications for presentations, word processing, and spreadsheets
http://www.openoffice.org/
Pageflakes: personalize a Web page by “dropping flakes” to match interest http://www.pageflakes.com
PB Wiki: a safe and easy wiki to get students collaborating http://www.pbwiki.com
PiZap: Photo effects site http://pizap.com/application.php
Prezi: integrative presentation editing tool http://prezi.com/
Scapblog: an easy drag-and-drop way to tell stories and create multi-media scrapbooks http://www.scrapblog.com
Slideshare: a space to share presentations on the web http://www.slideshare.net
Spresent: a free Web-based alternative to PowerPoint; create and edit high-quality Flash presentations online http://www.spresent.com
Tag Crowd: copy/paste any text into a box to create a tag cloud http://tagcrowd.com
Toondoo: a comic-creating tool; create original comic strips or editorial cartoons based on events from history
http://www.toondoo.com
Tuxpi: photo effects http://www.tuxpi.com/
Twitter: communicate and stay connected while collaborating http://twitter.com
Viddler: allows for uploading, enhancing, and sharing of digital video and digitized primary source film
http://www.viddler.com
Vimeo: ideal for student-produced documentary videos http://www.vimeo.com
Voicethread: online media album, allowing students to make comments by voice, text, video, and doodling
http://voicethread.com
Wiki spaces: make your own wiki http://www.wikispaces.com/
Writeboard: similar to googleDocs; share work and collaborate while saving separate versions http://writeboard.com
Wufoo: used to make online forms, surveys, and invitations http://www.wufoo.com
Xtimeline: exlore and create timelines http://www.xtimeline.com/
Xtranormal: "if you can type, you can make movies" http://www.xtranormal.com/
Zoho: An open source replacement for other office suites; online storage and open communication http://zoho.com
Zotero: Similar to Google Notebook; Firefox extension to help collect, manage, cite sources
http://www.zotero.org